The emotional words of Ante Milicic shone a light onto the usually hidden pressures on elite head coaches, writes Tom Smithies.
It’s only a 20-minute drive from Sydney United’s ground at Edensor Park to Campbelltown Stadium, but it’s taken Ante Milicic 14 years – and taken everything out of him in the process.
Almost a decade and half of coaching without a break worthy of the name – taking in Sydney United, three A-League teams and three national teams – have left the outgoing Macarthur FC boss spent. “I’m done,” he said simply. “I’m on empty.”
This is the human toll that we rarely get to see in public. Very occasionally coaches are honest enough to admit that it’s not worth it – Ian Crook walked away from the role of head coach of Sydney FC in 2012 because of the extent to which it had immediately impacted on his family.
But Crook never wanted to be a head coach, and only agreed after being asked several times. Those coaches who do have the ambition know they can’t pick and choose when and where they get to realise it. But in the end, everyone has their limits.
The extent to which Macarthur’s dramatic collapse in form has led to this realisation, or been caused by it, is largely immaterial. The Bulls have one game left, and then Milicic will board a flight to Croatia with his family to lie on a beach, literally and figuratively.
When he spoke with frankness in the aftermath of Macathur’s defeat to Newcastle on Sunday – a loss that killed their finals hopes – Milicic was most revealing in showing how a head coach in professional football never really switches off. You can go on holiday in the off season, but recruitment and strategy are still constant companions.
“I can’t give that commitment to the club and this group of players when there’s nothing in me,” he said. “I can’t go on a holiday now and think that I’m coming back or I’m going to go to work again otherwise it’s not a holiday, it’s not a break for me. I can’t have another assignment in me.”
His has been a particularly winding road since being appointed head coach of Sydney United in the wake of his playing retirement. That first job segued into the role of assistant coach at Melbourne Heart and then Western Sydney, working for his brother in law in Tony Popovic who was nonetheless as demanding a taskmaster as could be imagined. Well, as demanding as his next head coach – Ange Postecoglou with the Socceroos, taking in the 2014 World Cup and the qualification campaign for the 2018 World Cup.
From there he assisted Bert van Marwijk, coached the Olympic team, took over the Matildas in the wake of Alen Stajcic’s acrimonious sacking and rolled straight into the position of inaugural head coach at Macarthur.
Coaches rarely leave a role on their own terms, which is partly the reason why we rarely hear such honesty about the toll it takes on individuals to lead a team at the elite level. The chance to down tools and recharge properly is usually involuntary, and anyone who loses their job is usually preoccupied with how to find a new one.
But the cumulative effect maybe only becomes apparent at breaking point, even to those at the eye of the storm. The privations of COVID hit hard for Milicic, who has been open about the effect on him of his father dying last year in its midst. Those themes put football into perspective.
“I don’t want to look at a laptop, I don’t want to watch games,” Milicic said. “I don’t want to take phone calls from players or coaches or agents. I want to watch teams that I enjoy watching as a fan.
“I want to watch good quality games at a nice time slot of the day – if I do watch football. I want to cheer on Croatia in November in the World Cup and hopefully the Socceroos from a distance. But I have no intention at all to look for another job or put my name out there or network or have any thoughts of coming back.”
People in emotional situations make emotional decisions, but the point is that Milicic has earned the right to step away, and see what unfolds from there.
